Deadly Women: An Analysis of Indigenous Women’s Leadership in Australia. Tess Ryan A thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy – 254LC University of Canberra 2018 Table of Contents I. Introduction and Context .............................................................................................................. 1 1 Introduction ............................................................................................................................. 3 1.1 Aims ..................................................................................................................................... 3 1.2 Research Parameters........................................................................................................... 3 1.3 Disciplinary Approach .......................................................................................................... 4 Problem Description and Research Question ............................................................. 4 Positioning and Structure ............................................................................................ 5 Significance of Study.................................................................................................... 6 Approach, Research Design and Methods .................................................................. 7 Contribution to New Knowledge ................................................................................. 7 2 Profiles of Indigenous Women ................................................................................................. 9 2.1 Women Leading in Community ........................................................................................... 9 Val Cooms .................................................................................................................... 9 Eugenia Flynn .............................................................................................................. 9 Hayley Maguire.......................................................................................................... 10 Elsie Hiess .................................................................................................................. 10 Krystal Hurst .............................................................................................................. 11 Natasha Davis ............................................................................................................ 11 Celeste Liddle ............................................................................................................ 12 Summer May Finlay ................................................................................................... 12 2.2 Women Leading in Public Areas ........................................................................................ 13 Professor Marcia Langton AM ................................................................................... 13 Linda Burney MP ....................................................................................................... 14 Pat Anderson AO ....................................................................................................... 15 Nova Peris OAM ........................................................................................................ 15 Deborah Cheetham ................................................................................................... 16 2.3 Women Leading Institutionally ......................................................................................... 16 Associate Professor Bronwyn Carlson ....................................................................... 17 Associate Professor Tracey Bunda ............................................................................ 17 Anne Martin .............................................................................................................. 18 v Dr Chelsea Bond ........................................................................................................ 18 Katrina Fanning .......................................................................................................... 18 Jo Chivers ................................................................................................................... 19 Robyn Forester .......................................................................................................... 20 Rachelle Towart ......................................................................................................... 20 3 Problem Description .............................................................................................................. 21 3.1 Leadership and Eldership .................................................................................................. 21 3.2 Face of Aboriginal Australia in a Contemporary Context .................................................. 23 3.3 Initial Standpoint and narratives of Disadvantage and Deficit .......................................... 24 3.4 Capacity Building ............................................................................................................... 25 3.5 The Face of Contemporary Indigenous Women in the Australian Context ...................... 32 Truganini – A Historical Reflection on Indigenous Women and Leadership ............. 35 A Contemporary Example of Indigenous Female Leadership ................................... 36 3.6 Summary............................................................................................................................ 38 4 Colonisation, Resistance and Structures of Power in Australia ............................................. 41 4.1 The Phenomenon of Colonisation ..................................................................................... 42 Unpacking the Impacts of Colonisation on Indigenous Australians .......................... 45 Conflict and Violence ................................................................................................. 47 Environmental Impact ............................................................................................... 50 Cultural Erosion ......................................................................................................... 53 4.2 Structures of Power in an Australian Context ................................................................... 54 4.3 Fighting Back – Indigenous Responses to Power .............................................................. 55 4.4 Summary............................................................................................................................ 58 II. Theory and Methodology............................................................................................................ 61 5 Theoretical Approaches to Leadership .................................................................................. 63 5.1 Introduction ....................................................................................................................... 63 5.2 Eldership in a Leadership Context ..................................................................................... 64 5.3 Leadership Models ............................................................................................................ 66 5.4 Followership ...................................................................................................................... 69 5.5 Adaptive Leadership .......................................................................................................... 71 5.6 Culturalist Leadership ........................................................................................................ 72 vi 5.7 Leadership as Mobilisation ................................................................................................ 73 5.8 Feminist Approaches to Leadership .................................................................................. 73 5.9 Indigenous Australian Leadership and Indigenous Women .............................................. 76 5.10 Informal and Accidental Leadership for Indigenous Women........................................ 79 5.11 Identity and Performativity ........................................................................................... 83 Identity Processes and Agency in Leadership ....................................................... 83 Representations of Indigenous Women and Impact on Leadership ..................... 90 News Framing in Representation .......................................................................... 92 Discourse and Representation in Identity and Leadership ................................... 94 Performativity in Leadership Roles ....................................................................... 96 5.12 Summary........................................................................................................................ 98 6 Research Methodology ........................................................................................................ 101 6.1 Introduction ..................................................................................................................... 101 Indigenist Research and Knowledges ...................................................................... 102 Indigenist Research ................................................................................................. 108 Decolonising Methodologies ..................................................................................